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This is the collector. It was fun to paint and I learned a lot in the process. However I am not entirely happy with it. I think the main problem is the lighting on the character which doesn't look right also the crystals might have something to do with it...

I think it's a good start on an illustration. You were aiming at something game-card-ish, right? It's definitely on the way there but you need to work your values better. You don't have an overall value structure, and it's killing an otherwise lovely composition. If I were you, I would lighten up the background a lot, to silhouette the little guy against it, and then I would probably also make the crystals glow to bring them into contrast against the darkness of the rock. That way, your composition is instantly more readable. I'm not sure if you're working on a very bright monitor or not, but don't be afraid to use whites. Even your lightest values are really just light midtones here.

Right now, he doesn't really look like he's looking at the crystal. I think it would be a stronger narrative if he was more focused on his crystal. Also, he's not helding it very delicately. He's holding it like a bug or a stinky dishrag. Make his grip more gentle and covetous. Use the hands and the face to tell the story.

hello, Vrashat
i try to make a feedback for u, hope u like .
I think the whole image didn't tell your story. Maybe your color choice didn't suitable for your image, you could add a glowing color in your crystals inside your yellow brown box, so your image look more interesting.
Your creature didn't like a happy or satisfied collector which found a shiny crystal. The expression somehow liked a cool people that didn't care about anything which happen in front of him. I thought you should add an expression for your character, maybe joyful expression or happy expression.
Finally, i will give you a critique for your anatomy.. Did he has a nose? If yes I though the anatomy of the nose was wrong, maybe you should googling more about that. The creature's hands was not good, and seem unrealistically, you should searched some references for it.

ps: I same like u, still learn and sometimes I make some mistake when i draw something, so don't hesitate for giving me a good feedback too. Thank you Vrashat.

thank you Anaxa for your reply, for some reason I didn't see it until now. =O
Your feedback helps a lot and I will continue to work on improving it with this in mind.

Right now I am not sure I like how the creature looks, I think I will make him skinnier and older. Maybe even move the box down to the rock below.

Also I'm not sure if the crystals are seen as a distraction because as soon as I remove them the image seems more relaxed... It feels almost like a relief to get rid off them, still they are important to the image.

You don't necessarily have to get rid of the crystals, especially if they are important to the narrative. What you can do is to manage your tonal composition so they don't draw as much attention.

What's happening right now, is you have too much contrast everywhere, and this is a common problem in the works of less experienced artists. They think they have to render everything with full dynamic range, using both very light and very dark values on every object, and ends up creating a image that's too contrasty and lacks a sense of overall visual design in tonal composition. when you squint your eyes, your image should not have really light and dark values intermingled everywhere.

Instead, you should consider the entire image's dynamic range, instead of pushing the dynamic range on each individual object/surface. Some areas in your scene can be quite dark and without any lighter values at all, and some can be all lighter values without much darker values. Imagine if you simplified your entire scene into just contour shapes of each object, with flat values/colors and no gradations. Now imagine how you'd arrange/manage their values so this scene reads clearly yet has a strong sense of coherency.

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